WORK by artist Linda Birch, widely known for her illustrations, including the famous TV character Bagpuss, goes on show at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle tomorrow.

Linda, who has a long and happy association with the museum via her popular painting classes, will mark her extraordinary 40-year career with the one-woman selling exhibition, Beyond Bagpuss - An Artist’s Journey.

Linda’s career as an illustrator began quite suddenly - one Saturday afternoon in the mid 1960s to be exact - when she bought a bottle of Indian ink and decided that was the path she’d like to tread.

“It was a bit of an epiphany,” she said. “I loved books, preferred drawing animals to nudes, and wasn’t happy with the fine art course I was taking, so I switched to train as an illustrator and that was it for about 35 years.”

Her first break came when a sample of her work was singled out by Oliver Postgate and

Peter Firmin - creators of the now legendary Smallfilms Company - who produced characters like The Clangers, Basil Brush and Bagpuss, which came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite children’s TV programme.

This led to Linda helping illustrate an annual for another of their series, Pogles Wood.

That commission opened doors to other publishers and Linda subsequently went on to illustrate over 150 books including Conker, by Warhorse author Michael Morpurgo, which won an award in Children’s Books of the Year, and Who Shot Queen Victoria? by Horrible Histories author, Terry Deary.

In addition she also worked on several BBC Jackanory episodes including Simon and the Witch, The Wrestling Princess and Fred the Angel.

As her career evolved she branched out into painting and writing, producing books on painting along with several children’s stories.

She’s a regular contributor to Leisure Painter magazine, as well as teaching painting classes at various venues, including The Bowes Museum. She is also a regular artist/tutor for the Swan Hellenic cruise line, drawing inspiration from destinations in the Arctic Circle, the Mediterranean and North Africa.

The exhibition at The Bowes will include some of Linda’s early work such as Bagpuss and Simon and the Witch, but it will also feature other illustrations, sketch books and a DVD of her at work.

To complement the exhibition, Linda will be giving an illustrated talk, and will also be delivering informal gallery talks throughout the duration of the show, which ends on February 17.

She will also be taking part in the Big Draw at the Museum, on Saturday, October 27.

More details at www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk

An Autumn Food Festival is being held at the Bowes Museum on Sunday from 10am-4pm.

There will be around 40 stalls offering a wide array of produce and crafts. There will be cookery demonstrations throughout the day with chefs Andrew Rowbotham and Philip Leverington. Free admission to the grounds.